The capital of this English speaking province is Bamenda. This is another region with high relief and mountainous landscape. It is also a region of lowland savannah, making it to be generally referred to as the grass fields. It also has an extensive flood plain at Ndop.
This region has fertile soils and a favorable climate that account for massive production in the agricultural sector. Besides the west province, this is another breadbasket of the republic. Enormous quantities of food crops like maize, rice, beans, groundnut, vegetables, potatoes, cassava etc are produced here. Agro pastoral activities are also an important mainstay; mostly practiced by the ‘bororos’ on the hill slopes in places like Ndop, Sabga, Kumbo, Babanki and Kom. Over the years this has been a cause of conflict between farmers and grazers.
The Ndop flood plain is also one of the major wetlands in the republic. This has been beneficial to this province ever since the creation of the Upper Noun Development Authority (UNVDA) in this area. This authority greatly promoted rice production as well as other food crops like maize, soy beans, and cassava in this plain, through the transformation and development of wetlands to rice fields at the disposal of local farmers. It was a successful project during the early days of its creation since rice was a cash crop that boosted the economy of Ndop at the time. Over the years this structure has experienced crises and productivity dropped considerably, but with recent food crisis worldwide, there are plans to revitalize this authority.
The North West province is also a great tourist destination. It has a number of lakes like the lake Oku, Awing, Nyos etc, each having a scientific and/or traditional myth underlying its origin and manifestations. The lake Nyos is well known in this region for its gas eruption that took away over a thousand lives. There are also a good number of attractive landscapes in this region; the descend from Sabga towards Ndop plain gives an opportunity for a good panoramic view of the terrain containing mountains with waterfalls and streams flowing from different angles. There are also hills having a continuous green vegetation cover, interrupted by neither shrub nor tree. These exist side by side others that are aligned in their valleys by gallery forests of acacia and other woody tree species. A well tarred road passes through this province linking major divisional headquarters. This makes visiting this province quite easy. Other tourist attractions here are handicraft industries like the Press Pot centre at Bamessing village, specialized in the fabrication of clay pots and decorative jars. This village is also renowned for its bags and baskets made of raffia fiber and branches. There are also handicraft centers in Bamenda and Kumbo. This province is also characterized by people of diverse cultures and languages, yet there are lots of similarities in their behavior and activities. Small streams and lakes in some areas have enabled the development of fishing in villages like Bambalang. People here are skilled fishermen. Other tourist attractions are the palaces of the different villages that have a rich cultural heritage of artifacts that have existed over ages e.g. the Afo Akom statue of Kom, several masquerade masks, animal skins, tusks and hooves as in the meseum of Babungo. The Bafut Palace is historical relic in this category. This village also has a large and well built botanical garden. There are also several structures in this province that were built by Germans during the colonial period such as the government primary school at Bamunka, the Camp site at Babessi amongst others.
The literacy level has also increased with time thanks to the creation of several primary, secondary and high schools. There is a university of science and technology in as well as a Polytechnic in Bamenda. These attract students from all over the republic. This province also has a good health care system through its mission hospitals and health centers in places like Banso, Kom, Babungo, Baba and Bamenda. There are also private clinics and government hospitals through out this area.
The most dominant religion here is Christianity, though there is a peaceful coexistence with other religions and practices like the Muslim religion and local traditional believes.
There is much to discover in this province that contributes so much to the development of the country. Politically, this is the fief of the opposition party which originated from Bamenda under the chairmanship of Ni John Fru Ndi. Another great political figure who originates from here is John Ngu Foncha who made the decision of uniting Southern Cameroon to French Cameroon after the Foumban conference.